ICE agent accused of lying about north Minneapolis shooting makes first court appearance in Hennepin County
Bail was set at $250,000 Thursday for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent charged in the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in north Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge, as the state case against him moved forward for the first time since Texas' governor refused to hand him over.
Christian Castro, 52, is accused of four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in Hennepin County.
At his first court appearance Thursday afternoon, he also signed a waiver of any future extradition proceedings. As part of his bail conditions, he will be on electronic home monitoring and have no contact with witnesses, including his ICE coworkers.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says it arrested Castro around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday near Second Avenue South and Third Street in Minneapolis. He drove to Minnesota, expecting to appear in federal court Friday, and his defense attorney says there was an arrangement for him to go into custody at a local attorney's office in Minneapolis. Instead he was booked into the Hennepin County Jail on an active warrant.
"When you are a fugitive from justice who has continually refused to come up here to Minnesota, you do not get to dictate how you are taken into custody," said Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.
Moriarty said Castro was expected to go to the BCA office in St. Paul, and when that didn't happen, agents arrested him on the street.
Castro's attorneys also claim he wanted to come to Minnesota as soon as possible and denied he was a flight risk, another idea state prosecutors refute, referencing 394 recent phone calls to a person in Mexico.
He was released on bond Thursday evening.
Castro, who has been suspended without pay by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was released from custody in late August after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, refused to sign an extradition warrant to Minnesota.
Attorney General Keith Ellison's office also dismissed a lawsuit against Abbott to compel him to sign Castro's extradition order.
"I never should have had to file that lawsuit and I hope I'll never have to file another like it because we expect and we pray for cooperation between the states as the constitution requires," Ellison said.
"Gov. Abbott's attempt to shield Mr. Castro from accountability has failed. We look forward to commencing our prosecution," Moriarty said in a statement Wednesday.
Charges allege Castro was working with his partner on Jan. 14 when they tried to stop a vehicle driven by a then-26-year-old Venezuelan citizen, then pursued him on foot in front of a north Minneapolis duplex. Julio Sosa-Celis, who lived in the duplex and was 24 at the time, came out to help during the struggle.
The documents say the two men ran back inside the duplex and Castro fired a single shot through the door, striking Sosa-Celis in the foot. There were multiple people, including two children, in the home at the time. Surveillance video threw Castro's account of the encounter into doubt.
Castro is expected in Minnesota federal court on Friday afternoon. He has pleaded not guilty to six federal counts of making false statements to investigators.
